JetBlue bans flight attendants from wearing Palestinian flag pins after incident with Jewish passenger

Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat/USA TODAY

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JetBlue Airways is banning its crew members from wearing political pins after an incident between a flight attendant wearing a Palestinian flag pin and a Jewish passenger.

“We have changed our uniform policies to make it clear that onboard the aircraft is not the appropriate place for crew members to express positions on specific issues or political issues,” said JetBlue spokesman Derek Dombrowski.

The change was implemented on May 3 and came five days after 54-year-old Paul Faust traveled to Las Vegas from his home in Fort Lauderdale. On board the flight, Faust saw a flight attendant wearing several pins – including one for “Black Lives Matter” and one with the Palestinian flag.

When it was time for drink service, according to Faust, the waiter “put on an apron and decided to put the ‘Free Palestine’ pin on the apron rather than the Black Lives Matter pin.”

Faust went to the senior flight attendant and asked if she could speak to her colleague. He said: “I said, ‘I don’t want there to be a problem. Maybe we’ll talk to her after we get off the plane. Just talk about how maybe it was a little insensitive. It made me a little uncomfortable.’”

Rachelle Almagor, 45, an Israeli-American who sat next to Faust on the flight, was also offended. “My daughter lost her best friend in Gaza,” Almagor said Daily Mail. “He was kidnapped and murdered. So it was very uncomfortable for me to see this pin that said “Free Palestine.”

Faust thought that was the end of it, but as he got off the plane in Las Vegas, a JetBlue employee at the gate said he needed to talk to him about a disturbance he had caused on the plane. According to Faust, they threatened to call the police.

The next day, JetBlue canceled the reservation for Faust’s return flight. When he called customer service to find out more, he was told it was because he had caused a disruption on the previous flight.

JetBlue later turned to Faust, a telecommunications executive and a 10-year member of JetBlue’s frequent flyer program.

The airline was already working on a semi-annual update to its uniform policies, which included a change to its PIN policy. The rule, in place for years, allowed crew members to wear two pins: one from JetBlue and one of their choice, as long as it wasn’t offensive. The company concluded that it needed to tighten this policy in the current political climate and election year.

“In light of this incident, we urgently expedited this change,” JetBlue’s Dombrowski said. Rather than wait until all of the new uniform policies were implemented this summer, JetBlue quickly turned to the Transport Workers Union, which represents flight attendants at several airlines. They were able to draft the new policy within a few days.

Under the new guidelines, a second pin can only be worn if it is from a state, country or territory served by JetBlue; if it is a pin representing first responders; or a union pin.

“We are taking this matter very seriously,” Dombrowski said, “and are conducting a full investigation into the actions of our crew members.”

This is not the first time that the Transport Workers Union has found itself in the middle of issues related to the Israel-Hamas war. The union announced this week that it is taking legal action against Columbia University on behalf of school administrators who were involved in the scuffle when pro-Palestinian protesters took over a campus building last month. The union argues that the university knew the building was a target and should have reacted more quickly to protect employees working there.

We “want compensation for the torture they suffered at that moment,” said John Samuelsen, president of the TWU.